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Next Porsche Cayman to see light of day at LA Auto Show

November 8, 2012

Take a last, longing look at the Cayman. Its replacement debuts at the LA Auto Show Photo by Davey G. Johnson

At the 2005 LA Auto Show, Porsche brought us the Cayenne Turbo S and the North American debut of the Cayman, citing California as the perfect place to introduce the, pricier, slightly-more-powerful fixed-head Boxster to the US audience, given that the Golden State's historically been the Stuttgart automaker's most important market.

Despite the rise of the Middle East and China as important sales sectors in the luxury segment, the home of Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Pacific Coast Highway remain massively important to Porsche, and as such, they've confirmed that they're rolling out a new, small sports car at the 2012 LA show.

And since the long-rumored, on-again/off-again “Baby Boxster” is currently on hold, that can only mean one car — the new Cayman.

Expect the new car, like the Boxster, to be larger, lighter and more luxurious, to feature steering that's not quite as good as the previous model's and to offer both 2.7 and 3.4L flat sixes. We imagine the horsepower bump over the Boxster to be around 10 per car. Call it 275 hp for the base Cayman and 325 for the Cayman S. Since the real-world performance of the Boxster S can, under many circumstances, equal that of the 350-hp Carrera, we imagine we won't see giant horsepower gains from its hardtop brother.

In fact, some might say with this new pair of mid-engined twins and the size/price/luxury bump the 911's received, that the Boxster/Cayman have taken the slot historically occupied by their bigger brother.

Which, of course, leaves room at the bottom for that Baby Boxster/true 914 successor. One day.